Rachel Seligman, director
of Mandeville Gallery, upper left, leads a tour of the Erie Canal exhibit in the
Nott Memorial on Tuesday for students from Maimonides Hebrew Day School in
Albany. Hundreds of students from area schools have toured the exhibit. Students
from the Bronx are to arrive next week to hear about the canal and to see the
College's restoration of Erie Canal Lock 23.
Deford to Speak on Hero in Sport
Sports commentator Frank Deford will speak on “The Hero in American
Sport” on Thursday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
His talk is the last event in the term of the Perspectives at the Nott
lecture series.
Called “the world's greatest sportswriter,” Frank Deford is an
award-winning commentator and writer whose resume includes work for the ESPN
Radio Network, National Public Radio, CNN, NBC, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated,
The National Sports Daily, and Vanity Fair.
A commentator for the HBO show RealSports with Bryant Gumbel, he also
appears each week on NPR's Morning Edition. His NPR comments also are
featured on the CNN/Sports Illustrated Web site.
He is the author of 11 books and one screenplay.
Among his honors are “Nation's Best Sportswriter” by the American
Journalism Review, “Magazine Writer of the Year” by Washington
Journalism Review, and “Sportswriter of the Year” by the National
Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters.
A reception sponsored by Time Warner Cable and CNN/Sports Illustrated will
follow in Hale House.
Across Campus: The Edible Erie
Replicas of Erie Canal tokens made of chocolate. An Erie Canal aqueduct made
of New York State Cheddar Cheese. Canal boat models made of maple sugar candy.
They were all part of the Erie Canal gala celebration on Thursday, the 175th
anniversary of the opening of the waterway.
The edibles were the brainchild of Prof. Cliff Brown, chair of the Nott
exhibits committee and co-curator of the exhibit with Rachel Seligman, director
of the Mandeville Gallery.
Brown contacted the New York State Maple Growers Association to find people
who could produce a 16-inch replica of the canal boat. Smaller versions — the
ones that “floated” across the cheese aqueduct — were produced by
staff in dining services.
Also featured at the gala was an ice sculpture of a colonial eagle carved by
George Ferro of dining services, and commemorative wine goblets, an idea from
Bill Schwarz, director of communications. Callie Stacey, also of dining
services, oversaw the production of the foil-wrapped chocolate tokens.
So, the question is … when do we get to eat all this stuff? Not so fast,
warns Brown, who plans to use the cheese aqueduct and maple canal boat for the
final event of the Erie Canal celebration on Saturday. (They'll be wrapped and
refrigerated until then, of course.)
“I can assure you that the maple candy canal boat will not go to
waste,” Brown says, adding, “There's a diabetes screening on campus
this week. It might be a good idea to go get checked out.”
Calendar
Complete Campus Events
Calendar
Friday, Oct. 27, 12:25 p.m.
Women's Studies Lounge.
Junior Women's Research Colloquium with Zoe Oxley, assistant professor of
political science, on “Sex Differences in Voting for U.S. President: The
Importance of Contextual Clues.” For faculty, staff and students. Sponsored
by the Women's Commission.
Friday, Oct. 27, 6 p.m.
Old Chapel.
Murder Mystery Dinner. Faculty, staff, and students only.
Friday, Oct. 27, through Monday, Oct. 30, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film: What Lies Beneath.
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
“Greek Temples, Great Technologies, and Good Times on the Towpath,” a
lecture featuring old Saratoga and Schenectady county photographs presented by
John Scherer and Craig Williams, curators at the New York State
Museum.Concluding event of “Monument of Progress: The 175th Anniversary of
the Erie Canal.”
Through Sunday, Oct. 29.
Yulman Theater.
Saucy Minds of Science, the College's Commedia Dell'Arté troupe, present
“The Big Bang,” a series of sketches that explore the world of
science. Directed by Prof. Joann Yarrow. Admission $7; students/seniors $5. For
tickets and information, call ext. 6545. Shows are at 8 p.m. through
Saturday, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Through Sunday, Oct. 29.
Nott Memorial.
Exhibit: “Monument of Progress: The 175th Anniversary of the Erie
Canal” with related events throughout.
Through Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Arts Atrium.
“Ben Frank Moss: Paintings and Drawings,” an exhibition by the George
Frederick Jewett Professor of Studio Art at Dartmouth College.
Thursday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Sports commentator Frank Deford on “The Hero in American Sport.” The
last of the fall term's Perspectives at the Nott lectures.
Saturday, Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m.
College Observatory, F.W. Olin Center
Public open house.
Call 388-7100 for information.
Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Concert by Union College and Community Orchestra, Victor Klimash conducting.
Program includes works by Beethoven, Abel, Handel, Verdi and Schubert.
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 12:30 p.m.
Olin Auditorium.
General faculty meeting.
(A full schedule of events appears in “Union's Calendar,”
distributed weekly on campus, and at www.union.edu/News/Events_Calendars.)
Newton to Springer: ‘Big Bang’
Director Joann Yarrow began
nearly every rehearsal this fall for “The Big Bang” with a line like
this: “OK, you guys, I've been thinking and what this play is really
about is…”
Then would come a chorus of groans from the eight-member “Saucy Minds of
Science,” the College's Commedia dell'Arté troupe, as they began to
experiment with yet another wild idea.
“One night, (Yarrow) came to rehearsal talking about Keanu Reeves,”
recalls Colleen Sentance '03, who quickly adopted the actor to her repertoire
of characters.
At another rehearsal, Yarrow proposed a swordfight, an idea that
turned into a combat scene with toilet plungers staged in the style of the light
saber battles in the Star Wars movies.
The Big Bang, which runs through Sunday in the Yulman Theater, is a highly
improvised romp through the world of science. The production is a series of
sketches loosely connected by a plot (“If you could call it a plot,”
says Yarrow) in which two bumbling scientists travel about recklessly in a time
machine. It makes some very unlikely and irreverent connections between icons
and theories of science – like Einstein and relativity – and contemporary
celebrities and modern culture – like Jerry Springer and trash TV.
“Joann would have an idea and have us work with it,” says Elizabeth
Halakan '02, whose characters include inventor Bernie McPhoney. “Usually,
it would turn into something really cool.”
Yarrow describes the production as “high-paced, raunchy, offensive,
shocking, gross and politically incorrect.” In other words, not appropriate
for children, she warns. “We've degraded every social and cultural norm
out there,” she says. “We see everyone in the worst possible
stereotype there is.”
Commedia dell'Arté was born in Italy in the mid-16th century, as
professional actors would travel town to town, putting on improvised shows in
public. The plays are mild and vapid or perverse and gross – as long as they
are topical, says Yarrow. The actors use grotesque masks and exaggerated
movements to portray their characters. “The Big Bang” uses traditional
Commedia stock characters – the old miser, the saucy servant, the pompous
captain, and the lusty old man – finding modern representations in the world
of science and popular culture. The set is made of discarded apparatus from the
physics department.
The play runs through Saturday with performances at 8 p.m. There are also 2
p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $7, $5 for students and
seniors. For tickets and information, call ext. 6545. The performance is the
first in this year's three-play “Season of Science” at the Yulman
Theater.